Chapter Summaries

Lynn recognized that the Ork fleet at Duolidi was a feint for an attack on Carl II and sent Gus to intercept it with the Brevis Expeditionary Fleet. While Red Raven led the Orks into battle against Gus, Dominic steadily fought the Tithe Fleet through the encirclement above Duolidi, where the Ork fleet finally buckled after twelve hours.

• Lynn learned that about forty Ork warships from the Evil Sunz and Blood Axe Clans were approaching Carl II, recognized Toothy's plan, and ordered Dominic to focus on breaking through.
• Lynn told Gus to take the Brevis Expeditionary Fleet to Carl II and destroy the Ork attackers.
• Gus led dozens of Brevis warships toward the Ork fleet, and Red Raven ordered his ships to charge rather than retreat.
• Dominic directed the Tithe Fleet to advance in formation, repeatedly breaking the disorganized Ork attacks above Duolidi.
• After twelve hours of fighting, the Ork fleet above Duolidi buckled.

Dominic’s fleet defeated the Orks at Dorito, reinforced the Brevis fleet at Carl II, and returned to bombard the planet. Ragnar confronted Toothy over the failed raid as the Orks’ defenses collapsed.

• The Orks retreated from Dominic’s fleet, which then set course for Carl II to support the Brevis Expeditionary Fleet.
• Dominic arrived to find Gus’s forces had destroyed Red Raven’s flagship and nearly all the Ork raiders, then ordered a salvo that eliminated the survivors.
• Two days later, Ragnar learned that Dominic’s fleet had returned to Dorito and broken through the Orks’ orbital defenses.
• Dominic ordered another bombardment, destroying Dorito’s remaining mushroom fields and Mekboy workshops while Ragnar watched helplessly.
• Ragnar summoned Toothy and blamed him for the failed raid, but Toothy insisted the humies had anticipated the ambush.

The Imperium continued its relentless bombardment of Dorito while Lynn learned that a Necron pyramid had emerged on Dead World A. Lynn ordered Rena to keep her swarm away from it and monitor it, then suggested the discovery might not be entirely bad news.

• Dominic extended the fleet’s supply line to Dorito, enabling uninterrupted bombardment that starved and weakened the Orks while destroying the mushrooms they relied on.
• Dominic rejected biological and chemical weapons to preserve Dorito’s land and water, and planned to continue conventional bombardment before landing to kill Ragnar.
• Rena told Lynn that an earthquake on Dead World A had revealed a black pyramid surrounded by a growing radiation field and an energy barrier.
• Lynn recognized the pyramid as a Necron structure and ordered Rena to withdraw the swarm, avoid approaching it, and report any changes.
• Lynn watched the image of the pyramid and said the discovery might not be entirely bad news.

Lynn found Toothy tortured and offered him the chance to become king of the Orks in the Calixis System in exchange for swearing loyalty. Toothy accepted, and Lynn unlocked a permanent King and Subject bond that began their binding.

• Ragnar kept Toothy alive through four days of torture as punishment for his failure.
• Lynn visited the mutilated Toothy, who recognized him as Seven-Smasha and wept with shame.
• Lynn offered Toothy rule over the Orks of the Calixis System if Toothy and his people became his vassals.
• Toothy eagerly accepted Lynn's offer and resolved to swear eternal loyalty to him.
• Lynn's system unlocked the King and Subject route and began binding him to Toothy.

Lynn bound Toothy to his will and used the King's Gift system to transform him into a powerful Ork leader. Toothy emerged as a three-meter-tall Mad Scientist and Musician, and Lynn appointed him king of the Orks in the Calixis System as the Imperial Fleet’s bombardment continued.

• Lynn completed the psychic binding with Toothy, unlocking the King's Gift system and finding Toothy's loyalty at 60.
• Lynn spent six gift points to raise Toothy's Personal and Tactical paths to level 3, choosing Mad Scientist and Musician.
• Toothy emerged from the cocoon transformed, with greatly increased strength, a mechanical eye, and the Song of the Charge ability.
• Toothy knelt before Lynn and pledged his service, and Lynn named him king of the Orks in the Calixis System.

Lynn ordered Toothy to rally Orks against Ragnar and eventually lead his followers to Dead World A. After Toothy built weapons and gear powered by rock music, he fought his way to the surface with several hundred Ork Boyz following him.

• Lynn explained his plan for Toothy to win over Orks dissatisfied with Ragnar, defeat Ragnar, and relocate his followers to Dead World A.
• Toothy scavenged dungeon wreckage to make spiked armor, a loudspeaker backpack with flamethrowers, and an axe-bladed guitar.
• Toothy used his music and weapons to kill the Ork Boyz guarding the dungeon corridor while Lynn followed as his lackey.
• Toothy gathered scattered Orks as he fought out of the underground, reaching the surface with several hundred Boyz following him.

Toothy built a rock-and-roll battlewagon, toured Dorito with the Fang Band, and grew into a powerful rival to Ragnar. After learning that Toothy was leading millions of Orks, Ragnar ordered his remaining fighters to march out and kill him.

• Toothy used Lynn’s bombardment schedule to travel safely, then built a battlewagon from scrap and formed the Fang Band.
• Toothy toured Dorito, performing songs that condemned Ragnar and attracted Orks dissatisfied with his rule.
• Warbosses loyal to Ragnar tried to destroy Toothy, but his music drove his followers into battle and he defeated them.
• Toothy became known as Soundboss Fang, and his forces grew to tens of millions, making him Dorito’s second-largest power.
• Ragnar learned that Soundboss Fang was Toothy and, despite warnings about the Imperial bombardment, ordered his fighters to attack him.

Lynn arranged for Toothy to lure Ragnar and his five-million-strong army into Horseshoe Mountain Valley with a public duel challenge. As Ragnar entered the valley, the Imperial Fleet unleashed a massive bombardment, leaving him and his forces trapped in a sea of fire.

• Lynn told Toothy to challenge Ragnar to a duel at Horseshoe Mountain Valley and draw him there.
• Toothy spread his challenge through an insulting song, and Orks across Dorito flocked toward the valley to witness the duel.
• Despite a Deffskull Ork's warnings that the valley could be an ambush, Ragnar led five million troops toward it to defend his reputation and rule.
• Ragnar arrived at the empty valley and found Toothy waiting alone, apparently confirming the duel was one-on-one.
• As Ragnar prepared to attack Toothy, shells from the Imperial Fleet rained into the valley and engulfed it in explosions and fire.

Lynn lured Ragnar into Horseshoe Mountain Valley and persuaded Dominic to unleash the Tithe Fleet’s firepower there. The bombardment killed Ragnar and shattered Dorito’s Waaagh Field, though Dominic ordered the attack to continue to ensure nothing of Ragnar remained.

• Lynn told Dominic that Ragnar was heading to Horseshoe Mountain Valley and convinced him to deploy the fleet for a bombardment.
• Dominic ordered the Tithe Fleet to assemble above Horseshoe Mountain Valley and prepare its full firepower.
• Ragnar approached a decoy Toothy, and Lynn signaled the fleet to begin its attack.
• The bombardment destroyed Ragnar’s mech and overwhelmed his regeneration, while the God of Menzi could not save or resurrect him.
• A lance vaporized Ragnar, and the Waaagh Field around Dorito collapsed.
• Dominic learned the Waaagh Field was gone but ordered another half hour of bombardment to ensure Ragnar was completely destroyed.

Dominic waited until Ragnar was confirmed dead before launching a ground assault on Dorito, while Lynn and Toothy used the ensuing chaos to prepare an escape. Toothy’s five stealth transports slipped through the Brevis fleet toward Dead World A, and Lynn’s Ork companion turned to ash.

• Dominic ordered the Imperial Fleet to land and cleanse Dorito after reconnaissance showed the Orks fighting among themselves.
• Lynn told Toothy that Ragnar was dead, and Toothy led his Boyz to defeat rival bosses and gather three hundred million Orks.
• Toothy halted his campaign and ordered the Mekboys to build ten transports, including five purple-painted stealth ships and five green-painted decoys.
• Lynn brought the Brevis Expeditionary Fleet into the cleanup operation as the Imperial Army drove the remaining Orks back.
• Toothy launched the transports toward Dead World A, sending the decoys toward Dominic’s fleet and the stealth ships through the Brevis fleet’s open defensive line.
• Lynn watched the stealth transports disappear into space and said goodbye to Toothy as his Ork companion’s flesh turned to ash.

Lynn explained that he sent Toothy and the Orks to Dead World A to establish a controlled, ongoing war with Rena’s swarm, letting the Orks multiply and the Tyranids gain biomass. He left the story with Toothy bound for the planet under strict orders to avoid the sleeping Necrons beneath its black pyramid.

• Rena questioned Lynn about sending Toothy to the dangerous Dead World A, and Lynn explained that its barren landscape could become an Ork breeding ground.
• Lynn proposed that Toothy’s Orks and Rena’s swarm fight controlled wars, allowing both to grow while the swarm harvested biomass.
• Lynn recalled telling Toothy that he should establish a base far from the black pyramid before fighting the swarm.
• Lynn warned Toothy and his subordinates not to approach the black pyramid or explore underground ruins because powerful enemies slept there.
• Toothy vowed to obey Lynn and departed for Dead World A aboard a transport ship.

Dominic and Lynn oversaw the complete destruction of the Ork infestation on Dorito, then discussed plans to restore the planet’s farmland. Dorito was left ready for rehabilitation, with its first harvest expected in at least a year.

• After Imperial forces eliminated Dorito’s significant Ork bosses, Dominic ordered the warships to bombard the planet with incendiaries for seven days.
• Dominic deployed robots and Servitors to burn the surface for nearly a month, eliminating the remaining Ork spores.
• Lynn thanked Dominic for helping clear Dorito and take on the work of restoring its farmland.
• Lynn explained that fertilizer, planetary dispersal devices, and agricultural machinery would prepare the soil for planting within six months, with the first harvest due at least six months later.
• Dominic left the restoration arrangements to Governor Kerry.

At the victory banquet on Dorito, Lynn learned from Rena that a strange plague had broken out in Brevis’s Underhive. He secretly ordered measures to contain it before the fleet returned, while keeping Dominic unaware.

• Dominic celebrated the victory on Dorito and announced that the fleet would return to Brevis the next morning.
• Rena told Lynn that an abnormal plague in Brevis’s Underhive caused fever and cough before turning infected people into aggressive cannibals.
• Lynn recognized the outbreak as a likely Chaos threat and warned Rena that its hidden incubation period and the panic it caused could help it spread.
• Lynn ordered Rena to contact Butcher, have the Dark Division locate infected people, and direct Priest to form a secret Plague Cleansing cult.
• Lynn told Rena to keep the Genestealers’ connection to him and the plague response hidden from Dominic.

Lynn returned with Dominic’s fleet to Brevis, where a spreading plague in the Underhive threatened the city and the Imperial tithe of recruits. Dominic summoned Lynn to demand an explanation as the outbreak worsened.

• Lynn rejoined Dominic at the victory banquet and concealed that he had been handling fleet supply matters.
• Dominic led the fleet back to Brevis, where crowds celebrated his and Lynn’s return; Lynn noticed signs that the plague had begun spreading.
• Lynn arranged a bronze statue of Dominic, while the plague continued to grow beneath the city’s celebrations.
• A week later, more than ten million Underhive residents had become infected, and Lynn’s administration sealed the routes to the middle hive and upper city.
• Dominic summoned Lynn, worried that infected recruits could spread the plague through the Imperial Navy, and Lynn explained that the outbreak had become impossible to contain.

Lynn briefed Dominic on a plague that could spread through inorganic matter and on four heretical sects destabilizing Brevis's Underhive. Dominic left Lynn to handle the crisis while insisting that Brevis remain functional enough to provide its Tithe recruits.

• Dominic ordered Lynn to bring the plague under control to protect the year's Tithe recruits.
• Lynn explained that the virus spread through multiple routes and infected people despite intact protective suits, leading Dominic to wonder if it was linked to the Lord of Pestilence.
• Lynn described the Redemptionists, Chaos Ascendant Sect, Calamity Sect, and Doomsday Sect, which were spreading violence and undermining epidemic prevention in the Underhive.
• Lynn said he had mobilized garrison units and Vanguard forces but lacked enough personnel to control the vast Underhive.
• Lynn concealed his and Rena's Plague Cleansing Cult from Dominic.
• Dominic told Lynn to handle the crisis as he saw fit and demanded results, while prioritizing Brevis's survival and the collection of three billion Tithe recruits.

Lynn decided to expand the Plague Cleansing Cult to identify healthy recruits for the Tithe while containing the plague, despite the risks of Dominic discovering his methods. The cult spread through the lower city, screening civilians and burning those already infected.

• Lynn confirmed that Dominic had little interest in the lower city's plague and concluded he needed to find another 2.2 billion healthy recruits for the Tithe.
• Lynn ordered Rena to activate the Seeding plan and expand the Plague Cleansing Cult a hundredfold within three days by accelerating Genestealer growth.
• Rena used potent hormones to mature Genestealers in artificial wombs, producing short-lived fourth-generation hybrids suited to recruiting and brainwashing believers.
• Within a week, the Genestealer population grew dozens of times over and the Plague Cleansing Cult spread across the lower city, offering food, water, and plague screenings.
• The cultists moved healthy civilians to quarantine zones and persuaded infected people to gather before burning them with promethium.

Lynn oversaw the mass screening and burning of infected people in Brevis, while Luna gathered evidence of his reliance on Genestealers and prepared to use the Plague Cleansing Cult against him. The chapter ended at Brevis Prime Hive’s starport, where undercity residents were being forced into the Imperial Tithe and sent toward the Astra Militarum.

• Butcher reported that five hundred million people had been screened and moved to quarantine zones, and Lynn ordered the process accelerated as the infection spread.
• A plague-infected informer sent a report about Kerry Von and the Plague Cleansing Cult to Saint Garus Castle, then walked into a corpse pit and burned with the evidence.
• Luna reviewed reports linking Lynn to nonhuman forces and decided to use the Plague Cleansing Cult as the first fuse in her plan against him.
• Enforcers herded undercity residents into lines at Brevis Prime Hive’s central starport to fulfill the Tithe and join the Astra Militarum.

Dominic cautiously accepted the first billion conscripts from Brevis in quarantined batches, while Lynn arranged for a small number of infected recruits to fall ill later and make the losses seem ordinary. Meanwhile, Luna’s agents escaped the boarding lines but followed her instruction not to report the Plague Cleansing Cult directly to the Imperial Navy.

• Dominic ordered five million conscripts placed in quarantine transports and monitored for three days before accepting more.
• After the first quarantine showed no symptoms, Dominic decided to process the billion recruits in twenty batches, observing each for forty-eight hours.
• Lynn explained to Rena that he had ordered Butcher to mix a few newly infected people into each batch so later illness and limited deaths would not arouse Dominic’s suspicion.
• Luna’s black-robed agents slipped away from the boarding lines and hid in an abandoned warehouse district near the starport.
• When one agent proposed reporting the Plague Cleansing Cult to the Imperial Navy, the leader refused and repeated Luna’s instruction to let the truth be discovered firsthand.

Rumors of the Plague Cleansing Cult spread through Brevis's starport as soldiers discovered its followers among the conscripts boarding the Tithe Fleet. Bishop Venka ordered a mass screening and torture-based interrogations, which revealed a vast cult in the undercity and left him suspecting Governor Lynn had known about it.

• A corporal caught recruits making the cult's prayer gestures and ordered them executed as heretics.
• Soldiers found more suspected followers among the conscripts, and rumors grew that the Plague Cleansing Cult had spread throughout the undercity.
• Bishop Venka learned of the rumors and ordered Ecclesiarchy guards and starport security to screen all conscripts.
• Interrogators tortured captured believers until some confessed that the cult's followers numbered in the tens of millions and that its leaders' identities were unknown.
• Bishop Venka suspected Governor Lynn had either been overwhelmed by the plague or had knowingly allowed the cult to grow, and vowed the matter would not end there.

Bishop Venka accused Governor Kerry Von of allowing the Plague Cleansing Cult to spread among Brevis’s tithe recruits, and pressed Rear Admiral Dominic to intervene. After reading the interrogation records, Dominic suspected the cult had appeared only recently, since Kerry had never mentioned it before.

• Bishop Venka left an interrogation room and decided he needed Rear Admiral Dominic’s authority to investigate the Plague Cleansing Cult and Brevis’s governor.
• Venka confronted Dominic, accusing him of neglecting the recruits’ religious purity and demanding that he question Kerry Von.
• Dominic defended the governor’s loyalty and asked Venka to explain his charges.
• Venka presented interrogation records showing that thousands of recruits prayed to and thanked the Plague Cleansing Cult for food and medical aid in the undercity.
• Dominic read the records and recalled that Kerry had previously named four other heretical sects but not the Plague Cleansing Cult.
• Dominic suspected the cult had emerged recently rather than being deliberately concealed by Kerry.